– The purpose of this paper is to examine intercorrelational relations among the self-report behavioral construct Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) 5X transformational and transactional subscales and the Tacit Knowledge for Military Leaders Inventory (TKML) leader-level specific situational judgment test scenarios.
– In total, two leadership measures, the behavioral construct MLQ and the cognitive construct TKML assess different aspects of how a leader functions and were administered to 125 active US Army officers representing three leader levels: platoon, company, and battalion. The authors examine the intercorrelational relationship between these two measures.
– Results show a correlational pattern that contours the evolution of a leader’s skills (from novice platoon leader to expert battalion leader), with the strongest correlation at the higher leader levels.
– The decision to restrict the number of TKML scenarios provided to respondents and to administer the MLQ and TKML to the same sample is considered a limitation.
– Pairing the MLQ and TKML makes use of self-reported leader behaviors with maximal assessment scales that directly assess respondents’ understanding of what the best approaches to good leadership are.
– Response patterns from both measures permits direct counseling on the misconceptions about leadership to create better leaders.
– No previous research has examined correlative relations among the scales/subscales of the MLQ and TKML.
